Secondary to the human crisis in Ukraine, energy supply issues and energy poverty now dominate the headlines. In a similar way to the geopolitical energy crisis of the 1970’s, the current situation in Eastern Europe has sparked countries to re-evaluate their energy security. The recent UK government announcement to address a baseload electrical supply of 24 GW via nuclear power by 2030 is still some way distant. In addition to this, in what may seem an obvious strategy, has been the broad support to encourage the development of the remaining national oil and gas reserves. In the UK, most hydrocarbon operators have taken a commitment to explore and produce these natural resources efficiently with lower emissions. For new field development, the UK Oil and Gas authority (OGA) requires developers to submit comprehensive plans on the practical steps they will take to make any new development net-zero emissions for the complete lifecycle of the asset. This is in addition to the current legislative compliance for an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). With the price of a barrel currently >US$100, and investment capital seeing more certainty on a quick return, exploration drilling, subsea tieback and field redevelopment may bring forward another peak of activity, but this still brings cost and risk to projects being approved and sanctioned.
Achieving flow assurance
Existing infrastructure and production hubs will be a critical part of such a ‘mini boom’. The integrity of structural and pressure systems will be at the core. In mature basins such as the North Sea, much of the remaining reserves are in smaller isolated (stranded) locations. The pipeline network will be essential to connect the pockets to realise field viability and value. With many systems in late life and beyond original design parameters, material degradation will require consistent and accurate direct methods of measurement to provide confidence in the assessments and predicted remanent life.
With the double dip recession and low oil price, existing assets that were experiencing flow assurance issues were often shut in as the economics of remediation or replacement were prohibitive. In the current climate, addressing the challenges of blocked or restricted flow of pipeline infrastructure has potential to increase throughput significantly for relatively low investment. Providing solutions to such flow assurance issues are now a substantial proportion of Tracerco’s operational projects …
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